First off, I didn’t want to start another thread for this, but as the general outline doesn’t have to do with balance, nor should discussion load to what is “OP or UP” This seemed like the way to go.

Also, a disclaimer, I am not a medic player, I was primarily monster and assault in the big alpha.

So, after watching Caira and getting to really know her abilities, I was thinking of the medics and how they are tiered in terms of play.

I know exactly why Laz was put into tier 2 as his play style is very different from “normal” medic play. I was holding off judgement on Val until after we saw the 3rd medic, but now I’d like to have a discussion on the medic tiers.
So, the devs say that the tiers were made in regards to how the chars play and specializations. I’m fine with Laz where he is, but its my opinion that Caira and Val should be switched.

Looking at Caira, she seems like a great char, very different from our first two medics, and thats awesome. However, she seems more straightforward. I think her skill set is actually quite easy for people to pick up. While somewhat nontraditional, her heal grenades are pretty straightforward, shoot to heal in a nice burst area. They are easy to spam, and yes it’ll take a few matches to get the fire arc down, I don’t see it taking more than a few matches. She also can easily heal herself with both her grenades and medic burst. Her napalm grenades are the same way. Nice simple direct damage, nothing extra to worry about. Her speed boost is good, but probably won’t see a lot of use in combat. Of course it’ll have its uses, but it seems more of an out of combat, utility ability. This all means in combat, Caira needs to switch just through heal and napalm grenades, switching between reloads. Sure I’m simplifying things, but to me she doesn’t seem that complicated.

Now look at Val. I’m not going into too many details because the medics have been discussed so much on these forums, but the one thing everyone can agree on, is that a good Val needs to constantly be cycling through all of her skills, each one doing it own unique use. Her damage isn’t even direct, it requires teamwork, the weakpoints and tranqs are more debuffs, direct damage is simple. She also is the medic in the most direct danger. Aside from medic burst, she doesn’t have a way to heal herself, nor escape from danger. Also her heal beam is a nice big green arrow that says to the monster “I AM RIGHT HERE”.

I could go on but it’d be nitpicking at that point. So I like Laz at tier two, but Caira should be one because of her straightforward playstule and ability to selfheal more effectively. Val should be the third tier medic due to how much more she needs to focus on in terms of battle, and lower survivability.

As someone who knew nothing about evolve before I played the beta except that the monster had to eat to evolve I found Val extremely easy to pick up and play. Caira might be just as easy but I doubt it personally just because as a medic you are supposed to be healing and it’s easiest to do that with Val. And then her other weapons are fairly straight forward, point and shooters as well.

Rctboy95:

And yeeeeeey another medic topic xD

And I don’t get it either… since when are medics popular lol. Figured I would play medic in evolve and always get the class I want… Now it wants to be the 2nd most popular hunter class… Ok cool story Evolve.

Well, as someone who played a lot of medic I have to disagree. I see Val as more of a base medic - she’s definitely not the simpliest to play, Caira may just beat her to that, but instead gets the title of the easiest one to understand.

Caira can’t simply shoot her heal nades out at friendlies and ‘boom, heal job done’ (the player has to aim quite well, get closer to the fight etc.) But Val’s beam works that way.

The sniper rifle is something very common these days in most shooters, so putting something you know how is going to behave is probably better than just throw in a grenade launcher.

Last but not least, a group-effect ability is always harder to use than a debuff weapon. Especially when you partially have to rely on your teammates to make use of it, which, at such low levels as you are suggesting might just not be the brightest idea. I think it applies to other group-effect abilities as well, but that’s a matter for another disscussion.

I would say because there’s not so much hard skill with her. (except, if you’re far away from the battle, for aiming “good”)

Whereas Val’s has multiple possibilities which are important !
The tranquilizers, the sniper-rifle and of course the heal beam.
And these two first require, in my opinion, quite a good understand of the game to being used properly.

Plus, since noobs often just run at indicators like birds, or follow blindly Daisy, a speed boost may help them a bit at least.

I think the thing with Val being tier 1 is she is the ‘traditional’ medic, she is what people coming from games like TF2 and even WoW would expect. The healing beam is the ‘dedicated heal’ function and it’s easy to grasp whilst still picking up the basics. Not that she’s more simple than the others, I think she just fits the expected archetype better so she’s a good tier 1 candidate.

The reason? It comes down to good medics vs. quacks (A quack is a player who plays the Medic class, but instead of being focused on healing primarily, they are instead more focused on playing the class like Assault).

Caira caters to this kind of mindset. She has weapons that can do respectable damage to the monster. And though more players who are forced to play Medic and not like the role WILL find Caira as the most acceptable persona of the 3, I feel it punishes players who want to primary Medic for the characteristic trait of healing, which Val exceeds at.

Having Caira in T1 would reward non-Medic players, and punish Medics who enjoy the healing/de-buffer role that Val and Laz bring. As an appeasement, I suggested Caira at T2, and Laz (who has a very unique “healing” style of play) as T3.

I could agree to having Caira move to T2, but not T1 and this puts Laz at T3 which is, in my opinion, pretty solid. Whether Caira and Laz swap is little concern, but I would be concerned if Val wasn’t T1.

Now look at Val. I’m not going into too many details because the medics have been discussed so much on these forums, but the one thing everyone can agree on, is that a good Val needs to constantly be cycling through all of her skills, each one doing it own unique use.

This is one of the aspects I find many Medic players enjoy. The tactical knowledge in knowing what needs to be used when. And, as with all classes, even though good Val medics will be swapping quite often, those just learning the persona may find themselves Sniping in a vein attempt to be a damage dealer (not understanding that the Sniper Rfiles are actually exceptionally weak weapons) or never tranq-ing the monster when in battle. But I’m sure everyone will begin to learn. Some will stick with what they’ve “always done” and others will adapt and evolve their playstyle.

I do agree that Caira would be EASIEST for players to adapt to as a Medic, but I just feel that she’s not T1 material. As Val offers a more traditional role that works better, IMO, as a “training” class.